Eighty-six years in the story of the Rec on Beech Road

I don’t usually do then and now pictures, and certainly not without a story, but today I shall.

Here are two both from the Wilton end of the Rec.

They are separated by about 80 years, and in the interval we had a bowling green which many remember, but not me.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; on the Rec, sometime in 1900 from the Lloyd Collection and again in 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 17 ........... the Gas Board

This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*

It is funny how the names of things stay with you, long after events have rendered them obsolete and consigned to history.

So, it is with the Gas Board, which was created just a year before I was born, and lasted until I was fully grown.

To be accurate there were twelve gas boards covering the country, and they had been created in 1948 by the Labour Government which nationalized the 1,062 privately owned and municipal gas companies.  They were  the Eastern, East Midlands, Northern, North Eastern, North Thames, North West, Scottish, Southern, South Eastern, South West, Wales, and West Midlands. Each area board was divided into geographical groups or divisions which were often further divided into smaller districts.

Ours was the South Eastern Gas Board, and here is the meter card for our house.

Not that we paid for our gas by slot meter.  Dad had switched to paying quarterly, and so this payment card belonged to one of the previous owners, who was a G. Broome.

That said I do remember the chap who came to read the meter at regular intervals, a practice which lasted well into this century.

After which we opted to read it ourselves and send the reading in online and this in turn was replaced by a device which did it for us, and now by Hive, that box of tricks which pretty much does it all.

Despite all this buzzy technology I have never quite got round to referring to our gas provider by their name, and still talk of the Gas Board.

But then I also still talk about the wireless when everyone else calls it a radio.


Location; Well Hall

Pictures; the Gas Board  Slot Meter Record Card, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall

Out to East Didsbury from Albert Square ……. on the new tram

I say the new tram, because quite clearly this wasn’t the old fashioned tall stately tram which rattled its way around the city at the start of the last century.

This was the new tram car.

The first  of which was completed in the March of 1930.  By the end of the year another eleven were in service.

In all 38 were built during the next two years, with the last of them appearing in October 1932.*

They were the Pullman, or more commonly called Pilcher, after Mr. Robert Stuart Pilcher, who took over as General Manager of Manchester Corporation Tramways in 1929.

Location; Manchester







Picture; Albert Square to East Didsbury, date unknown, from the collection of Allan Brown

*The Manchester Tramways, Yearsley, Ian & Groves Peter, 1988

Remembering the Spanish Civil War

 

Travels with a badge collection ……. three decades of silly and angry protest

Today I have been looking at my old badge collection which starts in 1966 and peters out in the late 1990s.

Upset Her, 1980

Sadly, there are only 70 or so left, having lost, discarded or given away a heap more.

Smirks Against Travolta, circa 1980

Some are campaign badges, some reflect contemporary issues and a few are just silly like my “Smirks against Travolta” badge.

And the equally silly "Dog Lovers Against the Bomb".

Thinking back to the campaign badges which cover about half of the collection the tally of successful against failures is about even.

One day I will explore each campaign but for now I am drawn to those directed against the Tory Governments from 1979 to 1997, and in particular those which featured Mrs. Thatcher.

She was Prime Minister from 1979 till 1990, and she divided opinion and for some of us still does.  

That said it is important I think to recognise that she was in a sense the figurehead for a series of political and economic ideas and a powerful section of the establishment.

Remember The Milk, 1971

Given the majorities the Conservatives commanded in Parliament those political and economic ideas were steadily advanced, and I guess that explains the large number of badges directed against Mrs. Thatcher.  

Some in the collection predate her time as Prime Minister and harp back to her time as Education Secretary in the early 1970s but most were produced in the 1980s.

And it is as well to remember just how the simple badge machine revolutionized the business of protest.

No longer did you have to rely on the expensive and old-fashioned process of producing enamelled metal badges, instead you could turn out hundreds in a  relatively short time at home changing the message and the issue as was needed.

Most of the finished products were unsophisticated and at times quite rudimentary but they did the business. Looking back at mine I marvel at just how many campaigns there were that I slid into.

But I suspect my involvement in many was just to buy the badge, and wearing it till the next issue burst forth.

Swamp Thatcher, 1984

Although with those directed against Mrs. Thatcher I was pretty persistent in showing them off on coats and jumpers.

With the passage of time, I do question the degree to which they personalized politics and while some were funny many more were vicious.

Not that such attacks are new, you only have to go back to the works of James Gillray and William Hogarth in the 18th century to appreciate that the caricatures of Mrs. Thatcher come from a long line of political satire.

And that is it.

Less a statement on today’s politics or my own opinions and more a reflection of what once was, which is just as it should be for a history blog.

PS The Milk Snatcher’s badge was being given away at “The Milk Snatcher’s Ball” held at UMIST sometime in 1971.  Equally notable on the night was the sight of me and my flat mate Jack wearing baby doll nighties which we had borrowed from the girls in the flat above. But that story is for another day.

Dog Lovers Against the Bomb, 1984

Location; some time between 1970 and 1988.

Pictures; Upset Her, 1980, Labour Party, Smirks Against Travolta, circa 1980, Remember the Milk Snatcher, 1971 unknown, Swamp Thatcher, the SWP circa 1984, Dog Lovers Against the Bomb, circa 1984, unknown, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The painting …. the actor …. and the exhibition

This is Ira Aldridge and my Wikipedia tells me he “was an American-born British actor, playwright, and theatre manager, known for his portrayal of Shakespearean characters”.*

 Ira Aldridge, 1826

He was born in1807 and emigrated to Liverpool in 1824 and by the following year was performing on the London stage.

At this point I could launch into a detailed description of his life and achievements, but I would only be copying from Wikipedia and even if I cobbled something together from several sources, I doubt that I could really call it research ….. it would still in truth be copying.

At the Threatre Royal with Mr. Aldridge, 1856

So, I won’t.  Suffice to say that by following the link you can get the lot.

Instead, I will just pick up on his condemnation of slavery which he made in several speeches while touring in Coventry and which according to various sources inspired the residents to petition Parliament to abolish slavery.**

Now that I think is worthy of some research.

And as you do, I went looking for him in Manchester, and yes, this portrait is in the City Art Gallery but more exciting because it is a bit of original research, I found that he performed here in the city.

The Queen's Theatre, 1850

On May 12th, 1849, the Manchester Guardian reported that he was performing at the Queen’s Theatre, Spring Gardens and seven years later at the Theatre Royal.***

At the Queen's Theatre, 1849 in the company of Mr. Aldridge

I have yet to uncover a review, but it will only be a matter of time, but I know the old Theatre Royal and found the Queen’s Theatre on the corner of Spring Gardens and York Street. Alas the Queen’s has gone having been demolished in the 1860s for a warehouse.

All of this was unknown to me until I met Ian Nickson who is involved in a fascinating exhibition at Central Ref exploring the connection between Shakespeare and Manchester.

It explores "the story of how seven personalities transformed Manchester into a global centre of Shakespearean theatre in the Victorian era and reveals present-day evidence of the city’s innovative engagement with the works of Shakespeare”.

The Shakespeare Windowm, Central Ref

One of the seven is my old chum Ira Aldridge along with “local businessman John Knowles who commissioned the Theatre Royal on Peter Street in 1845, actor-manager Charles Calvert and Rosa Grindon who forged a career as the Victorian age’s leading female Shakesperean scholar.”

There are more but where would be the fun in recording all of them when dear reader you can discover them for your self at  Shakespeare and Manchester: A Victorian Powerhouse Exhibition Manchester?

It is on at  Central Library on the First Floor Display Cases from February 12th 2026 untill May 30th 2026.

I have got my personal tour booked with Ian for next Wednesday, but given that it is on till the end of May there will be plenty of opportunities to visit it again and again and again.

For more details contact:

Ian Nickson. Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester, ian.nickson-2@manchester.ac.uk

Kattie Kincaid, Project Lead for the Shakespearean Garden,  kattiekincaid@hotmail.com

Location; Manchester Central Library, St Peter's Square, Manchester, M2 5PD

At the Ref, 2014

Pictures; Ira Aldridge, 1826 painted by James Northcote, Manchester Art Gallery Accession number 1882.2, advert for The Theatre Royal 1856, the Queen’s Theatre 1850, from Adshead’s map of Manchester,  courtesy of Digital Archives Association http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/  The Shakespeare Window in the entrance of the Central Library and Central Reference Library, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Ira Aldridge, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Aldridge

**First black Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge honoured BBC News, August 3, 2017, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-40802072

***Queen’s Theatre, Manchester Guardian, May 12, 1849 Theatre Royal, Manchester, Manchester Guardian July 5th, 1856

Mrs Martha Thorpe, the slaughter house and a new row of shops on Beech Road

Now when Mrs Thorpe opened her “slaughter house” in 1879 on Beech Road I doubt she thought that she would still be there selling cuts of meat, mince and tripe at the dawn of the next century.

Looking down towards the "slaughter house" circa 1900

But that is just exactly what happened and in the process will have been visited by countless customers in what is now Elk, which given its name is an interesting turn of events for what was originally a shop dealing in dead animals.

Until recently I had no idea of the date of the building and it was only as I trawled the rate books that its age came to light.

The rate books will tell you who owned the property and if it was rented and the estimated annual rent along with its rateable value.

And by slowly tracking back year by year it will be possible to arrive at the date the building was completed and first assessed for rates.

In our case this was 1878, not long after Chorlton Row and been renamed Beech Road, and when there were still farms, and smithy within a few minute’s walk of Mrs Thorpe’s business.

Beech Road, circa 1900

The discovery of the “slaughter house” was not an accident and came out of the research on the bars of Chorlton for the book Chorlton pubs and bars.



Location; Chorlton

Picture; Beech Road circa 1900 from the Lloyd collection